Challenge #01512-D051: Fascinating...
For the "Humans are space orcs": Aliens can only focus on one thing at a time. They're far more efficient because they hyperfocus and complete any task in a far shorter amount of time. So humans penchant of talking/humming/listening to music while working is both distracting and baffling. -- Anon Guest
Half the crew were watching the ship's human in their segregated kitchen. Terran music blared at maximum allowed volume, and the human sang slightly louder. Inside the quarantine zone, three pots were on the hotplates and the human was gyrating in the tiny space as they sang.
They seemed to be spelling out a word repetitiously, but that was not the source of the fascination. The human was cooking as they danced. Dividing their attention between three pots. Poking with the appropriate tools and sometimes juggling them as they went.
Even Captain P'k'rd was entranced. However, as leader of hir Rin'kathi crew, hir duty was to the proper functioning of the ship, and therefore had the mental fortitude to tear hir eyes away from the display and focus on the intercom. "Crewbeing Jek'sun... You are disrupting my crew with... whatever you're doing..."
"Makin' my lunch, Cap," Jek'sun poured the contents of one pot into another and stirred it while they turned the un-used hotplate off. "It's my downtime. And you said I'd have to entertain myself, so..." Jek'sun finished that thought with a shrugging gesture that encompassed their quarantined space. "I'm getting it all done at once."
"At once," repeated P'k'rd. "That is not possible."
"My kind do it all the time. We call it multitasking. It's why I like to have a headphone when I'm working. Music helps me concentrate."
"As does the -ah- 'casual game' you have running in one corner of your screen?" which had make P'k'rd wonder if the human was selling hir a line, somehow. But, Jek'sun showed excellent performance at all times, so there was little ze could reprimand them for.
"That one stops me dozing off at my desk, we discussed this." Two hotplates turned off at once whilst Jek'sun was talking. Then each pots contents became part of a different container. Portions of each in a bowl, and the rest went into small, serving-sized stasis boxes for a later date. "As long as I have something to do, I stay awake. Otherwise I doze and that impedes my function in your hive."
It was... incredibly perplexing. P'k'rd had heard of other beings like this. The four-armed Gyiiks, for example, could divide their attention between four recipes at once, seemingly without any concern at all. And yet, there this human was, paying attention to a conversation whilst music played, and also finishing up the preparation of their lunch.
"I may have to restrict the viewing of your... downtime. This event has caused my ship to cease functioning."
"Understood. Initiating privacy shields." And with a flick of a switch, the windows turned opaque, and the music ceased in mid-spelling.
P'k'rd was going to have to look up the human concept spelled R-E-S-P-E-C-T at a later date. For now, it was hir duty to remind the crew of theirs.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / 3000ad]
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